Creamy rice pudding made in the oven

The easiest dish since a long time:

My kids do love rice pudding. When they come home with a huge craving for something sweet – it is time to have rice pudding for dinner. And since I found the easy method of baking rice pudding in the oven, I love it even more. No more burning, no more over boiling milk… It is such an easy dish to make and a winner with kids. If you serve it with pomegranate seeds, as I did you will even win the adults!

All you need is some time. To make your own delicious coconut milk (you can easily use canned one as well, if you are in a hurry) it will need some time to soak. And the rice pudding needs about one and a half hours to bake.

Nutmilk – not that easy to me…

I love to use coconut milk in my kitchen. I use it often, in smoothies, in soups or to make the creamy rice pudding I am talking about. As often as I open a new can I was wondering the other day if there was a way to make coconut milk by myself. And of course there is. Why didn’t I start earlier with it, i asked myself after the first tries. It is so easy and so tasty! I tried all kind of nut milks over the last few months. I love the idea behind it. It totally makes sense to me but I have to admit I didn’t like the taste. Nor did my kids and my husband. I love cashews, but couldn’t deal with cashew milk. Same for almonds… But totally different with coconut milk. The recipe is so easy to make, please try it out.

The amazing thing about the rice pudding – it is baked in the oven!

The coconut rice pudding gets soft and creamy in the oven. It takes a bit longer than the usual way on the stove, but you don’t have to take much care of it. I often make the double amount and store the rice pudding in serving sizes in the fridge. Like that I have a little desert or treat for the next days…

The kids love their rice pudding the classic way – sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and some apple sauce. But I am totally addicted to pomegranates these days and seriously the combination of the juicy, slightly sour taste of the pomegranate seeds and the creamy cocos rice pudding is delicious!

Homemade coconut milk

• 300g shredded coconut (dry)
• 1200ml water

Put the shredded coconut in a large bowl and pour the boiling water over it. If you need a smaller amount of coconut milk, you can easily divide the quantity (100g shredded coconut / 400ml Water). Let soak overnight or at least 8 hours. Put everything in a high speed blender and mix for 2 minutes or until the milk gets creamy. Sieve the milk through a strainer or a nut milk bag and there you go! Beautiful coconut milk! You can keep the coconut milk for 2-3 days in the fridge. If the coconut oil starts to separate from the coconut water just shake the bottle and everything gets fine again. I like to freeze some coconut milk in ice cube trays as well. Perfect for refreshing smoothies or to add to an asian soup.

And the coconut flakes? Well dry them in the oven or in the sun and shred them again in the blender or food processor…. easy way to get coconut flour to experiment with.

 

Creamy coconut rice pudding (serves 4)

• 1l coconut milk
• 100g Arborio rice
• 50g natural cane sugar
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 good pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 160°C /325°F). Combine the coconut milk, sugar and the seeds of the vanilla bean plus the rice in a baking dish. Cover with parchment paper and then aluminium foil.

Bake for 1 hour, no need to stir around. Then remove the parchment paper and the foil and stir once. Let the rice pudding bake for another 15-30 minutes depending on the size of the dish you are using, until it gets thick and creamy. Consider that the rice pudding will thicken a bit while cooling down.

Serve with whatever you like. Cinnamon and sugar, apple sauce, mango puree, fresh cut fruits…